Green Energy Gluttony: The World is Stuck on Stupid
By Andy Caldwell
According to energy experts, dispatchable generation refers to power sources that can be adjusted on demand by grid operators to match supply with electricity demand. Examples of dispatchable generation include coal-fired plants, natural gas plants, and large hydroelectric plants (all of which have targets on their back) that can quickly ramp up or down depending on the grid’s needs.
Dispatchable power is the capacity of these generation resources to provide reliable electricity when needed. It plays a fundamental role in grid stability by ensuring that fluctuations in demand can be met in real-time, which is critical in maintaining uninterrupted power supply and avoiding outages.
Unfortunately, for those people who want us to rely on solar and wind for all our energy needs, neither of these renewable sources are dispatchable with respect to generation or the ability to meet our needs 24/7. This has to do with the completely intermittent and unreliable power generation supplied by wind. And the fact that solar generation during the day doesn’t meet the peak demand that occurs in the evening hour.
But that is only half of the story.
The L.A. Times recently acknowledged that the increasing oversupply (read: overkill) of solar power in CA has created a situation where energy traders can buy our excess solar power at prices so low they become negative.
What does that mean?
It means that we consumers must pay other states to take the excess energy off our hands lest it overload the grid. Either that, or the solar farms must be shut down completely (they call that “curtailment”), except in those cases when solar farm operators can count on federal subsidies ($54 million in 2023) that pay out handsomely even when the energy is not needed.
Consider the Following:
We used tax breaks, low interest loans, mandates, and incentives of various kinds to get all this solar built and now we are paying other states to take the electricity off our hands at CA rate payer expense. Meanwhile, even more solar is being built. These are a few of the reasons that the CA Public Utility Commission slashed financial incentives for rooftop solar. The L.A. Times reports that the State of New Mexico saved $35 million in 2022, at our expense, by taking CA’s excess solar power. Arizona has a 24-hour trading floor looking to buy cheap or negatively priced solar power from CA; that is how much power and money we are wasting while in our zeal we seek to eliminate dispatchable sources of electricity generation.
Zealots, like local supervisor Das Williams, will tell you that building industrial-scale battery plants can solve this problem. But, as the Times reports, most industrial-sized batteries can only store power for four hours (not even enough to get us through the night). In addition, battery storage effectively doubles the cost of solar.
In Britain, this same phenomenon is occurring with respect to wind power. According to The Telegraph, British bill payers have spent an “absurd” £1bn (equivalent to $1.2 billion U.S.) so far this year to temporarily switch off wind turbines as the grid struggles to cope with their excess power. Sweden’s wind energy sector is also crashing financially.
In Germany, after they closed all their nuclear plants, the wind quit blowing. What to do? According to NPR, at least 20 coal-fired power plants nationwide are being resurrected or extended past their closing dates to ensure Germany has enough energy to get through the winter.
Additionally, as the AP reports, Germany risks “deindustrialization” as high energy costs and government inaction on other chronic problems threaten to send new factories and high-paying jobs elsewhere. For instance, Volkswagen is projected to close three factories and lay off 10,000 workers due to electricity costs, EV mandates, and the inability to compete with Chinese EV imports.
Energy Death Spiral Looms
Unfortunately, here in the echo chamber we call home, our green virtue-signaling leaders believe that we can never have enough solar and wind, making us consumers gluttons for high electricity bills. The real problem, they believe, is the remaining few sources of dispatchable energy, e.g., natural gas, which they are trying to eliminate. The elimination of this vital dispatchable and ubiquitous clean energy source comes by way of prohibiting both production and consumption. Yet, natural gas is one of the only things propping up the green energy facade, while giving consumers an affordable alternative to wind and solar generated electricity. And don’t get me started about CA’s shutdown of oil production that is leading to the closure of our gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel refineries, which is going to cause a similar energy death spiral with respect to our transportation sector.
In a country of states, some will thrive and others will stagnate. Trump promises to “ drill baby drill” in states where it is not blocked by green lunacy. Those states will thrive, and in the states that resist, U Haul will flourish. The question for those of us rooted in California, and really unenthusiastic about icy winters, is whether we have the creativity and determination to replace the Newscum ,Hart, and Limon bozos who are playing the role of Thelma and Louise.
Thank you Andy, people need to wake up to the fact that all of these green initiatives are not about the environment at all but rather about money and power. The global warming hoax is a study in effective propaganda and here in California we have its most devout adherents. The case for anthropomorphic global warming is short on science and long on emotion. One can take the covid narrative and change a few words and recycle it as global warming fear porn. The consensus of the expert class, the unique nature of the problem requiring emergency governmental power, the need for vast sums of money to change hands, the threat to humanity posed, the necessity to defer to experts while ignoring our experience and observations, the dire consequences of not complying. The sticky part about global warming is the time scale is hundreds of years at a minimum and more likely thousands to tens of thousands of years. We saw in short order the lies about covid vaccine effectiveness, fatility rates, natural immunity and exaggerated death rates but we will never see in our lifetimes any manifestation of global warming. Models predict perhaps a 1.5 degree increase in 100 years. But over most of the history of the earth the global temperature was much warmer than today and by much more than 1.5 degrees yet life flourished. All before man walked the earth. Note also that climate models have been wrong 100% so far. First in the 1970s models predicted global cooling. Now models predict global warming. Remember an inconvenient truth? No climate fear lies from that movie have come to pass. Polar bears thrive and kilimanjaro has snow. The predictions of any model are no better then the integrity of the person creating the model or inputting the parameters. While we have no climate crisis, we do have an integrity crisis in the science community. I believe the solution to stop this fraud is political as the expert class will shut up as soon as they stop being payed to lie